The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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70 THE WOLVERINE APRIL 2018 BY JOHN BORTON H eather Lyke learned it's tough to walk away un- changed after four years with Carol Hutchins. Lyke witnessed a master program builder in action and began to understand what it takes. Lyke oversees her own ath- letics program these days. Rather than managing a single sport, like U-M's softball icon, the former U-M first baseman serves as athletics director at the University of Pittsburgh. It's been a long road getting there from her playing days (1989-92), including stops at Cincinnati, Ohio State and Eastern Michigan. The leader- ship journey began, though, at Alumni Field's competitive crucible. "I consider myself blessed, having the opportunity to play for a person like Coach Hutchins," Lyke said. "Hutch just made you better — as an athlete, as a person, as a leader. "She's highly motivated and has great expectations. Everybody she recruits is all-everything where they come there. They've done everything you could do in the sport up to that point, but she makes you better." Lyke came to Ann Arbor as a bud- ding prep star out of Canton, Ohio. Like many from her athletic era, she didn't specialize in one sport, but enjoyed a host of athletic involve- ments — swimming, tennis, softball, basketball and volleyball. She felt a fit at Michigan. At the same time, she needed to adjust as a freshman, and quickly. "That was the first time I ever played only one sport," she noted. "It was the first time I didn't start in my career, as a freshman. That's an adjustment." Lyke played designated hitter as a rookie, playfully dubbing it "play- ing half the game." Training for the other half, her position required her to endure a foreign object on her right hand. "Hutch wanted me to wear a first baseman's glove," Lyke recalled. "You have your glove since you're about 10, right? It's totally broken in the way you want it. She said, 'No, you're going to wear a first base- man's glove.' It was like changing out my blanket. "I learned that you have to adapt. She's going to make you better." Loudly, if necessary. "I remember her yelling at me a lot early on," Lyke recalled. "I kept thinking, 'Gosh, I've played this game before. I know what I'm doing.' You're kind of that cocky kid. "She was consistently on you. I think she could tell. She said to me one day, 'You know, Heather, the day I stop yelling at you is the day you should start to worry.' Her message was, I care, and I'm trying to make you better. "It was about perfection. It was about one pitch at a time, one-pitch softball. Every pitch matters. Every play matters. All of that mental dis- cipline gets you ready for life." Lyke became a full-time starter the following season, an occa- sional slap hitter who more often swung away. She also took over at first base, seeking to meet Hutchins' if you touch the ball, catch the ball demands. Her teammates made her better as well. When you've got a superstar shortstop, it's tough not to reflect the inspiration. " M y t e a m m a t e s w e r e highly, highly motivated and very talented," Lyke said. "Bonnie Tholl, who is the as- sociate head coach, was our shortstop. "I thought she was Cal Rip- ken. I was just in awe of her. She's the smoothest shortstop I've ever seen, anywhere. She has the quickest release of any player I've ever seen. I don't know that she ever threw it in the dirt. You knew it was com- ing right at you. "You didn't want to let your teammates down. They played at a really high level. You felt inspired, every day." It's hard to envision a time when Michigan softball wasn't swimming in championships. At that point, though, Hutchins still sought her first. Lyke's senior season of 1992 proved the year. The Wolverines secured the Big Ten hardware, the beginning of a softball dynasty that lasts to this day. "That was, in many ways, the breakthrough moment," Lyke said. "It was the first Big Ten champion- ship. She knew she was a great coach. It was just a matter of getting all the right players and developing them." Lyke became one of those right players, serving as a senior captain and cementing a memory she'll never relinquish. "I remember it clear as day, very vividly," she said. "That's the goal you set out to do. As captain of the team, it was like, this is what we're going to do, this is what we're com- mitting to. If you don't say it, you're never going to achieve it. "It's the same in your career. If you don't set aspirations about what you want to do and what you want to be, it's very difficult to achieve them. It's unrealistic." WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Heather Lyke Runs The Show In Pittsburgh Lyke became the athletics director at Pittsburgh in March 2017, after she served as the vice president and director of athletics at Eastern Michigan from 2013‑17. PHOTO COURTESY PITT ATHLETICS